Update on the veterinary feed directive

Aug 09, 2016

Regulations take effect January 1, 2017

Schae Greenzweig
PigCHAMP

August is officially here, which means producers have less than five months to ensure that they’re prepared for the new regulatory changes related to the veterinary feed directive (VFD), taking effect on January 1, 2017.

pigs

Getty

There are a few record-keeping items that those involved in the pork industry need to be fully aware of before the VFD officially begins. Dr. Jennifer Koeman, DVM and Director of Producer and Public Health for the National Pork Board, outlined the importance of these regulatory changes in the article she wrote for PigCHAMP’s Benchmark magazine this spring.

Dr. Koeman stated the impending VFD “will affect not only pork producers, but veterinarians and feed mills as well.” She listed four specific regulations which will be enforced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

· “The veterinarian issuing a VFD is required to keep the original VFD form; the feed mill/distributor and the producer (client) must keep a copy. These records can be in print or electronic formats.

· All parties must keep the VFD records for two years; one year for water prescriptions.

· Each VFD includes a specific expiration date for a specific group of animals. Any leftover feed cannot be fed to any animals without obtaining a new VFD.

· Any of these record must be accessible to FDA upon request.”

For more information and to stay up to date on the latest VFD information, visit Pork Checkoff's Antibiotic Resource Center.

Dr. Koeman’s full article can be accessed in the 2016 edition of Benchmark.

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”